truck series. Not just one playoff points good tape. The points leader in the end of the regular season. An extra 1512 points a game winning five points on as close as exuberant JohnnySauter . The floor. Christopher bell and the winner.

It probably better than make contact. And round goes JohnnySauter track's blocked over and term born. A lot. So curry ..... just one of those racing deals right there. Half CF JohnnySauter got. Much damage I don't think he did and that

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Moments after accepting the trophy for fourth place in the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings with his former team, JohnnySauter shed light on who would fill an important role for his new team. Sauter said that Marcus Richmond will move over to become his crew chief as he transitions to GMS Racing ahead of the 2016 season. Richmond spent the last two seasons with Red Horse Racing, helping guide Timothy Peters and the No. 17 Toyota to three victories during that span. "Obviously, we've already got things set in motion," Sauter said Monday night at the series' annual awards banquet. "As far as people and personnel, we've still got a couple guys that we're trying to assemble to make it what we want it to be, but obviously Marcus Richmond's going to come over and be the crew chief and he's got some key people that he thinks are going to help the program. … Lot of work to be done in a few short months, but they're working hard." GMS announced on Oct. 15 that Sauter would become a teammate to Spencer Gallagher after spending the last seven seasons driving the ThorSport Racing No. 98 Toyota. On Monday, Sauter revealed another key piece of the puzzle. Peters closed out the season with a change atop the pit box, with veteran Butch Hylton replacing Richmond for the finale. Though their work partnership may have ended, Peters said his long-running friendship with Richmond -- with roots all the way back to childhood years -- would endure. "Hate the circumstances for sure, but it was a mutual decision to part ways with Red Horse and Marcus," said Peters, who finished fifth in the season-long truck series standings. "Definitely, he and I are still best friends and wish him well."

A 2015 rewind and a 2016 preview for the top five finishers last season in the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series. Today: JohnnySauter , the fourth-place finisher in the truck series standings. Team: ThorSport Racing No. 98 Toyota (2015); GMS Racing Chevrolet (2016) 2015 wins: 0 Strides: Sauter showed signs of consistency in his final season with ThorSport by matching his career-best of 16 top-10 finishes, including setting a personal best of third place at New Hampshire. Setbacks: Besides being shut out of the win column for the first time since 2008, Sauter & Co. struggled in qualifying with just four top-five starting positions in 23 races. Quoteworthy: "I wouldn't have [switched teams] if I didn't think it was an opportunity to go win a championship, so I'm excited about it, obviously getting back with Chevrolet and my relationship with those people is great, so ECR power and assembling the right people, I don't see any reason why we can't go win races and win a championship." What's next: After seven successful seasons with ThorSport, Sauter opens a new chapter with a new team (GMS), a new crew chief (Marcus Richmond) and a new manufacturer (Chevy) in hopes of ending a winless drought that dates to August 2014 (a stretch of 33 races).

RELATED: Full race results " Truck Series Chase Grid " Race recap HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- JohnnySauter remembers well the first time he talked to GMS Racing competition director Mike Beam about making a significant career change. While at the hospital for the birth of his third child in September 2015, Sauter scurried away to the parking deck for a 45-minute chat about driving for the upstart organization. That period in Sauter's life wound up being the rare lightning-strikes-twice instance of two life-changing events coinciding. The longtime journeyman, in the first year of his partnership with the Maurice Gallagher-owned team, realized his life's dream Friday night by clinching his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with a gritty third-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway . Though the bonds forged between Sauter and GMS, like his toddler-aged daughter, are barely a year old, the team was front of mind for the veteran driver after crossing under the checkered flag. He offered a rapid succession of thank-yous over the team radio, a champion at last. "I never thought that would happen," Sauter radioed in during the cool-down lap. "This is because of you guys." Sauter made a self-described "leap of faith" in the offseason after spending seven seasons with perennial powerhouse ThorSport Racing. During his tenure with the Ohio-based organization, Sauter regularly competed for victories and finished among the top five in series points in five of those seven years. Yet his first discussions with GMS brought newfound energy, a near-instant comfort level and confidence in the group's dedication to building a title-contending team. Renewing his family's long-running General Motors allegiances by shifting to a Chevrolet team was also an important motivator. "People is a big ingredient," Sauter said. "There's just a lot of little things. I could sit here all night and talk about it. It's just the whole package. I just felt very comfortable about meeting the Gallagher family. I'm not sitting up here blowing smoke, I'm telling you the truth. I felt very comfortable that night and knew that this was something I wanted to be a part of." For Gallagher, the move to bring Sauter to the fold was nearly two years in the making. Since the operation's full-fledged launch in 2014, GMS Racing has fielded trucks for a host of several part-time Sprint Cup stars along with relative newcomers to the series, but the 38-year-old Sauter represented an element that was missing. " Johnny was that kind of constant," Gallagher said. "He shows up with that kind of experience -- and I call him the old salt -- and you just can't put a price on that kind of been there, done that. He was terrific with the younger guys, and I couldn't ask for a better teammate. It's an investment. You do it, and you hope to have the outcome we had. You'd like to think that every investment pays off. It's hard in this business, but this one has paid off in spades." The new partnership bore fruit with immediacy after a victory in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway . The team then peaked in the series' first-ever Chase postseason, with two wins in the Round of 6 clinching Sauter's title shot in style. Friday night's performance, rallying from a 19th-place starting spot and outdueling former teammate Matt Crafton in a sterling battle down the stretch, represented a coronation for the 15-year veteran with experience in all three NASCAR national series. It also meant the first season-long laurels for Sauter since a championship in the former American Speed Association (ASA) AC-Delco Challenge Series in 2001. And it also signified a long-awaited celebration for a Wisconsin family with a rich devotion to racing. "It's all about putting the pieces of the puzzle together," Sauter said. "Sometimes it works out, and I've always said, timing is everything. You know, I feel like the timing is good where I'm at right now." &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;

RELATED: Results " Standings " Chase Grid FORT WORTH, Texas -- You might say JohnnySauter is on a roll. Then again, that might be an understatement. Passing Matt Crafton near the start/finish line with two laps left in Friday night’s Striping Technology 350 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway , Sauter pulled away to win his second straight race in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase. In the process, he deprived Crafton of a chance to clinch a spot in the Championship 4 finale, set for Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway . Crafton won a drag race to the stripe against Daniel Hemric to secure the runner-up spot, .836 seconds behind Sauter . "This is amazing," said Sauter , who started 16th in his No. 21 Chevrolet and won for the third time this season, the third time at Texas (having swept the 2012 races) and the 13th time in his career. "Matt was content to keep running the bottom, and I made a couple of runs on that restart (on Lap 130 of 147, after the third and final caution). "They got me great track position on the pit stop, and I just kept bottoming the splitter out on the short run, and I could just not fire off. ... Matt just kept running the bottom, and I was like, 'I'm going to the top.' And I was pretty successful on the top down in (Turns) 3 and 4 all night long -- just big momentum." About the only low point of Sauter's night was his post-race burnout -- but that was by design. "I've got to apologize to the fans for the burnout," Sauter said. "I know it was lame, but I've got to have this truck for Homestead." Crafton, a two-time series champion, overcame a scrape against the outside wall and a suspect battery to run second. "We were just off all night," Crafton said. "I got drove into the fence off Turn 2, and the right-rear tail is moved over quite a bit and we got really free up off the corner. I was trying to manage, and with about four (laps) to go I just got really free and I was like, 'Oh, boy.' "I was hoping that Johnny and the 19 (Hemric) raced each other a lot longer than they did." Polesitter Spencer Gallagher , Sauter's teammate at GMS Racing, led a race-high 88 laps but lost six positions on pit road before the final restart, thanks to a slow tire change on the right rear of his No. 23 Chevrolet. RELATED: Despite dominance, Gallagher comes up short Chase drivers Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters finished 13th and 14th, respectively, and are currently below the Chase cut line. Peters is fifth in the standings, one point behind Crafton in fourth. Kennedy is sixth, 13 points behind Crafton heading to Phoenix, where the Chase field will be cut from six drivers to the final four next Friday. Sauter is the only driver guaranteed to race for the championship at Homestead. William Byron, who leads the series with six victories, finished sixth on Friday and held second place in the Chase standings. Christopher Bell came home 11th after late contact with the Toyota of Cameron Hayley and is third in points, but the gap between the second- and fifth-place Chase drivers is a mere five points. The only three cautions of the night resulted from the expiration of the caution clock, which runs in 20-minute increments from the drop of a green flag. The previous high number for caution clocks in a single race was two. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

BUY TICKETS: See the Daytona 500 live! As JohnnySauter returned to Florida this week it was a feel-good opportunity in the most literal terms. He is the reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion and started that title campaign by winning the season opener at Daytona Beach, just down the highway from his visit to Orlando on Thursday under sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures. "When I drove my kids to school this morning it was 3 degrees," Sauter joked. "For me personally, it's nice to get away from the cold frigid temperatures of Wisconsin, it's nice to get a little break. I look forward to kicking things off." Sauter , 38, was in Florida to drop the puck at the Orlando Solar Bears hockey game, show off his championship trophy … and to get fans thinking about the approaching Daytona Speedweeks. For the first time in his career Sauter will start the season as a NASCAR champion, however he is emphatic that the title celebration is officially over now. "I've been racing long enough to know I need to put last year behind us because quite frankly, it's yesterday's news," Sauter said. "It's cool and I'm proud of the accomplishments of a year ago, but we're on the verge of a new season." Collecting a second consecutive trophy in 2017 would be trumping a historical rarity. Matt Crafton is the only driver to win back-to-back truck titles (2013-14) in the series history. And Sauter's title hopes are again a moving target with rule enhancements governing the series. Last year NASCAR instituted the popular playoff elimination in the series and for 2017, the sanctioning body has implemented a new -- and well-received -- format to enhance competition in all three national series. Points will awarded to the top 10 places following two early race segments then distributed again to the entire field based on the checkered flag standings. "To be completely honest with you, I haven't studied it a whole lot because at the end of the day, you still have to be there at the finish," Sauter said. "Yeah, it's going to be good to win segments, but ultimately if you win a segment and you crash in the third segment and it's a DNF that's not good either. "It's kind of like we're in the position we were a year ago with learning the Chase format. No one really knew. Until you do it once you really don't know what to expect. "Change is good. Change is inevitable and I'm looking forward to it." Sauter's eagerness to get back on track is easy to hear in his voice. He has won the Daytona season opener twice in the last four years (also in 2013). And while he acknowledges the frantic pace and pure intensity expected of the Feb. 24 NextEra Energy Resources 250 opener at Daytona, he also admits it is a perfect way to start the year. "Exhilarating," Sauter says of the experience. "From where I'm sitting that's the word I would use. It's only 100 laps of racing. But I promise you're so focused on what's going on around you that you find yourself in so many different scenarios, you forget half the things that happened to you until you go back and have a chance to watch a replay of the race. It's a pretty crazy night." "And," he added, "I have to be honest, I hear it a lot that that the Truck Series puts on the most exciting race and I do think that's a product of a shorter race and putting the emphasis on getting where you're going in a hurry. "Having said that, it's one of those places, I've crashed there before we've even completed a lap (2010) then the last couple years I've won it twice. "Anything can happen at Daytona, that's the tricky part about it and good part about it."

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- JohnnySauter won two of the three Chase races in the Round of 6 for the Camping World Truck Series, but the veteran racer says it would be wrong to call him and his GMS Racing team the favorite in Friday night's championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway . "I don't ever consider myself the favorite," Sauter said Thursday at the Loew's Hotel here. "Anything can happen. We've seen it time and time again. I feel really comfortable with where we are as an organization and a team going into this race, but to say that I'm a favorite, that would not be doing ourselves a service." Sauter , Timothy Peters , Christopher Bell and Matt Crafton make up the Chase drivers who will be competing for the series' title in Friday night's Ford EcoBoost 200 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Crafton's a two-time series champion (2013-14) and drives for ThorSport Racing; Peters doesn't have a win this season, but has managed to survive through the inaugural Chase for the series to put his Red Horse Racing team in title contention; Bell's the only youngster in the group, a winner at Gateway earlier this year in the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Sauter is the only one of the four finalists to bag a win in the Chase -- he went back to back with victories at Martinsville and Texas to advance to the finals. Crafton's had three top five finishes; Peters has four while Bell has posted a pair. That the title group is heavy on veterans isn't a surprise to Sauter , who said the more experienced drivers "just probably through the course of the year raced a little differently than some of the younger guys ... maybe a little bit smarter, and that just comes with experience, taking care of your equipment, things like that." Having spent time in the Sprint Cup , XFINITY and Truck Series, Sauter has seen just about every type of situation arise; for that reason, he said it's unlikely anything can happen that will catch himself or his GMS team off guard. "For me personally, I feel like I've seen and heard and have done it all so nothing would surprise me in the least," he said. "Having said that, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure nothing crazy happens, nothing foolish. "But this sport is very humbling; you can have all the momentum in the world, everything going your way, win two of the last three races in the final round and tomorrow night anything can happen." Sauter has 13 career wins in the Truck Series and he won three times in the XFINITY Series. His Sprint Cup career consisted of 85 starts for a handful of teams, including Haas CNC before it became Stewart-Haas Racing . He finished second in points in the Camping World Truck Series in 2011 and fourth the past three seasons. But he's never won the title. It's something he's considered, especially now that he has another opportunity. What it would feel like to win it and what it might feel like if he doesn't. "I've definitely done that," he said. "What a championship would mean for GMS as an organization for all the guys; this is a long season ... I can make a case for both sides. It's means nothing until we run that race tomorrow night. "You have to make sure you don't get caught up in it from a mental standpoint. Just keep doing what we've been doing." &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

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